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The Whale Fins Ch.0

A big thanks to everyone who commented on the last thread and gave me tons of super-helpful tutorials and links, I ended up decided to actually do a proper webcomic for WF!
For a 'test run'/first practice I did a 5-page chapter that also serves as a quick prelude to the story proper, just to see how this 'how do I comic' thing goes - the whole learning process is pretty dang exciting and fun! You can't expect to nail everything on the first try, but a start is a start and I do like what I got in the end.

Oh, look, Mol's there too!

So what's next?
The real story will begin from Ch.1 onwards and should start very soon! It will center around a human's adventure into the WF world and then some tidbits, and the general style will be that of P.5's. A minor downside of a webcomic is that it's going to take a bit before I can show who does what and what's going on though!

So what do you guys think? Should I make regular page updates simultaneously with dA once Ch.1 (and beyond) goes live?

I think I found a plot hole or multiple habitable planets exist in your story... In frame #3 the great whale's tail is seen above an earth-like landscape but in frame #5 he dies and the owl in frame #7 mentions his body formed the Earth we stand on.

Frame #3 must be something of the past, a completely different world that wasn't formed from his body. Am I correct?

Frame #3 must be something of the past, a completely different world that wasn't formed from his body. Am I correct?

The Whale Fins do believe worlds like these already exist before Star Whale died and became the world they live in, yeah. Adding to the fact that creation myths in general are pretty unreliable to begin with...
The credibility of the lore should be taken with a grain of salt, that's what I think - monsters are simple and they can't grasp big ideas such as planets or space like we do. The truth behind Star Whale and WFs will be explored in a later part of the planned story.

This thread's hit my bookmark in part because I'm a sucker for high-fantasy, but mainly 'cause I was really hyped to see you of all people are doing a comic ^^. Looking forward to seeing what fantastical stuff comes out of this in the future!

Sorry for bumping the thread, I just want to ask somethings before I move on.

So for those who frequents deviantART, you might have noticed Chapter 1 has already begun! I want to know if you guys would like to see me put up new pages here simultaneously with the dA update. And if so, would it be better if I keep putting new pages on this thread, or make a new thread for every chapter instead? One Chapter would have at the VERY least 20+ pages, I'm still at the start so it's a very vague estimation at the moment.

Alright, chapter 1 will be updated here - I guess there might be breaks/hiatus in between future chapters so separate threads might be more appropriate. To mods/admins who are seeing this, it would be very helpful if you could change the thread title to Ch.0&1 or just take out the 'Ch.0' altogother, thanks.

Images will be hosted on Photobucket and full resolution versions are available at deviantArt. Without further ado, here we go!

It will take a while before monsters actually appear in the comic so you might have to bear with the pace at the moment. Again, I'm still learning from every new pages so all comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome! I HOPE I DON'T GIVE UP AND ABANDON THIS BEFORE IT EVEN STARTS UGH

It will take a while before monsters actually appear in the comic so you might have to bear with the pace at the moment. Again, I'm still learning from every new pages so all comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome! I HOPE I DON'T GIVE UP AND ABANDON THIS BEFORE IT EVEN STARTS UGH

You'd better not! So far I'm liking it a lot just for the art-style/colour usage alone, it's really nice to look at ^^

I was not expecting imagery like that from the same person who drew this, lolhttp://imgur.com/a/5xwyv
I can appreciate the story having a darker edge though. I love innocent stuff being thrown into harsh or violent films; I love films like 9 for that reason. Who knows though, maybe this woman's about to bust out a sadistic killer mind-set and you're about to throw us into pages of blood . Either way, keep going with this ^^

So yeah, WF will be as gory as a story about savage-y forest monsters go - not abundant, but it'll be there. Sometimes I do worry if my artstyle(that everyone calls cute for some reason) would clash badly with these but we will see about that eventually. Or maybe I'm always into edgy gore and just hid it that well over the years hue

So yeah, WF will be as gory as a story about savage-y forest monsters go - not abundant, but it'll be there. Sometimes I do worry if my artstyle(that everyone calls cute for some reason) would clash badly with these but we will see about that eventually. Or maybe I'm always into edgy gore and just hid it that well over the years hue

I don't think a simplistic and clean art-style necessarily clashes with dark imagery, but I think an art-style that's simplistic, clean and vibrantly coloured can. Would suggest toning down the colour when you find yourself at one of those panels with grim imagery. In the panel with that arm for example, it seems as though you already did that, and I didn't feel as though there was any tonal clash whatsoever.

I may be in the shadows, but I'm looking for it; as many others... By the way, this is a great work, I really appreciate the art style. Yes, it's kind of cute, but everything changed dramatically with this dark perspective, and no atmosphere was lost. In my opinion, you should not focus in the "gore" aspect of the scene (not that this arm is considered "gore", it's ok); rather, you should use the benefits of your art style to implement the psicologic fear. You know, weird things out of context... Even more in a "monster world".

Hey, just wanted to say am really liking Whale Fins so far. Even if it's not gotten 'actiony' yet, your art style's just really easy to look at 'cause of how clean and clear the objects and their colours are.

If you wanted any pointers about the comic book sound effects you've tried on this newest page, I believe one thing comic book artists try and do is physically match the sound effect's font to the actual sound. So, as a generic example:

I'm sure you've seen stuff like that before =). But yeah the idea is to have the font's physical design be reminiscent of the sound. So in the case of the 'sssssSSSSSSS' sound you had going (by the way, I liked how you had it trailing from the engine like actual smoke ^^), I think that font would ideally be wispy and transparent. Or maybe I misunderstood what the sssSSSS was supposed to be?

The ssssSSS actually meant to signify the sizzling and imminent (second) explosion of the engine - but I get where you're coming from and it's an unclarity on my part Thanks for the comment!
One of my smaller wish/goal while drawing this comic is to rely on comic effects as little as possible - or at the very least less than the average comic, I hope. Stock effects have their places and I need them, but I don't want my pages to end up with comical sweat drops every three panels: the end goal is to force me to focus more on the panel art itself in order to tell the story. This is not going to be easy but I sure as hell am going to try.

As for the fonts of the sound effects, I agree! The only thing I'm worrying is that it might add too much into the page and result in a 'trying too hard' scenario with an overload of effects and art and all (I have no idea how to describe it the right way). But it's up to me to balance things out, so I'll keep an eye out in future pages.

I get what you're saying, you don't like the sound effects because they feel like inorganic clutter? I can agree with that to an extent. If that's your goal, I'd honestly just say to avoid the sound effects altogether then =). Instead of the boom, just draw the best explosion that you can into that panel. Instead of the ssssSSSS, just draw genuine smoke drifting towards the character. Stick to your goal without compromising it I guess is what I'm trying to say. I can definitely get behind a lack of Zaps, Pows and Bams in the comic, lol ^^